Gen X here and similar situation.

graduated loan forgiveness based on public service

stipends (for books,transportation,....) for students with family incomes below $50K (pick a number this is just a suggestion), because when the family income is low the child can't attend college because the cost of college beyond tuition is outside of the family ability to cover.

Student loans should be capped at their current rates, at the most, but when the market has lower interest rates borrowers should get the benefit of that. I refinanced my law school loans with a private lender because I couldn't justify continuing to pay 6.8-7.9% interest when market rates were half that. But in exchange, I gave up certain protections federal loans have. It was the right decision for me because I had enough saved, a stable job, and family I could fall back on in the absolute worst case. But most people are not so fortunate, and at a minimum, they should be able to get the protections of federal loans, like hardship deferments, without having to pay 1980's level interest rates.

to start a career, buy a house or anything else for that matter...

Although I didn't think interest rates in the 1980's were 20% - I thought they were high single digits to mid teens.

The federal funds rate, which was about 11% in 1979, rose to 20% by June 1981. The prime interest rate, an important economic measure, eventually reached 21.5% in June 1982.

subsidize college for higher income families.
this is due to the higher participation rate in college at higher incomes...and the fact that higher income household also will chose higher cost colleges.

there should be an income and asset cutoff when you and your family pay for college.

late boomer with college loans from both undergraduate and graduate school...who is sandwich generation paying for college from children while also supporting parent with poor health

it really should be free for good students with little/no family resources...but not free for the affluent

I do think two years at a CC or trade school should be free. Also, a lot of people don't have clear goals at first and this would give them time to find their direction without spending a lot of money figuring it out.

Dh walked out of undergrad with no student loans. He’s a dinosaur so his parents were able to pay his way out of pocket (FIL was a logger, mil was a part time bookkeeper). Dh’s employer later paid for his masters degree at an Ivy, giving him a year off to go get it.

I walked out of undergrad with $30k in student loans. My parents couldn’t/wouldn’t pay for college. I couldn’t make enough working in the summer to pay for everything.

I’m not bitter because others attend college for little to no money. I had a heck of a good grade/high school education that allowed me to pursue my engineering degree. Society already helped me by landing me in good school districts along the way.

Our kids don’t have loans- they earned free rides. It’s a bit unfair because we really did seek out a very good school district for them, and we could’ve afforded to pay their way. But they applied where they wanted to be and kept within our confines of what we’d pay (equivalent to instate $). The oldest may go to an Ivy for grad school - he’ll make his decision in April. It’s a fully funded Ph.D program.

I don’t begrudge anyone that gets their loans forgiven. The parent plus loans are such a racket- I’ve told my coworker’s horror story of owing nearly a half mil in parent plus loans. He will never repay them.

Parents know that many kids need college to be seen as successful in life. Not 100% true, but a college education certainly provides a citizen with a greater understanding of the world around them.

For what this country spends on defense and ancillary services, we should be able to provide the best education from preschool to Ph.D.

Life isn’t fair. But we can be better.

I don't think I can get on board with total loan forgiveness but can't disagree that we certainly can and should do better.

amen

I looked it up, though YYMV.

Despite their growing influence and responsibilities at work, Gen Xers are most overlooked for promotion and have been the slowest to advance. We found Gen X leaders on average had only 1.2 promotions in the past 5 years, significantly lower than their younger millennial counterparts (1.6 promotions) and more senior baby boomers (1.4 promotions) during the same period of time.

While Gen X leaders are often under-recognized for the critical role they play in leadership, they are typically expected to take on heavy workloads. On average, Gen X leaders have 7 direct reports, compared to only 5 direct reports for millennials. While their advancement rate is slower and their teams larger, Gen X remain loyal employees. Only 37 percent contemplate leaving to advance their careers — five percentage points lower than millennials.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/generation-x--not-millennials--is-changing-the-nature-of-work.html